AUXILIARY UPDATE : 15 February 2018

Retention Allowance payments due February

You will recall that last year QFES mistakenly attempted to link one part of the retention allowance payments (attendance at training nights) as contained in clause 15.4 of your award to the requirement for you to complete the annual core skills training program.

We warned your management this link between the simple award entitlement and their CSTP was a mistake, but they ignored us and did it anyway.

The unwillingness of those responsible for that decision to consult with the UFUQ when making that decision, when the award content so clearly does not allow for that, when read by a reasonable person was unfortunate.

Due to QFES refusing to discuss the obvious, your union had to spend the time and money running a case in the industrial relations commission (QIRC). That case did not require a hearing, because QFES correctly folded on all of their positions and completely agreed with the UFUQ position, once forced to by QIRC during a conciliation conference.

The conciliated outcome found in favour of your union on all aspects of our case.

One of the agreed outcomes was that QFES had to come up with a way to correctly measure attendance and correctly apply the retention allowance relating to who shows up to training nights. Your union thought it would be simple in the 21st century to keep records of who shows up for work on training nights. QFES gave an undertaking to go away and discover how to do that.

The time has come to test how well QFES has been able to determine who shows up to regular scheduled training!

If you reached the qualifying level of attendance for either of the retention allowances, they are due to be paid to you in your February pay.

We suggest you check your payslips from QFES from this month’s payment, and if you have not received the retention allowances you think you were eligible for, that you gather your evidence of attendance at training nights and call outs, and contact your local HR person and your local payroll person and ask them for clarification.

Their details can be found in the QFES gateway.

If you are unsuccessful in your attempts to correct QFES on your payment, then contact your union office, but not until you have taken these initial steps with your payroll and HR people in the first instance.

Your state office received informal assurances from QFES management as late as the end of 2017 that the process was operating and all should be fine, but there is always the chance that a few people fall through the QFES system cracks.

Let’s hope QFES have done the job and you are paid correctly.

State UFUQ Elections

The Union is in the process of organising the triennial elections for the State and Branch Committee of management positions. There will only be one election for these positions as per previous elections in 2012 and 2015. The union will contact QIRC for an exemption from a second election as the positions will have already been filled.

The members of the UFU will not be detrimentally affected as members will have already voted, or been given the opportunity to vote, in the election of the Federal Counterpart Body.

As stated this process was also adopted in the 2012 and 2015 elections.

It is important for auxiliary members to consider taking up one of the two (northern representative or southern representative) state committee of management positions. If you want more information on how to nominate, contact the state office on 0738440366.

Authorised by John Oliver General Secretary United Firefighters' Union of Australia, Union of Employees QLD